It really looks like that we'll never see a game like PotC again. It was possible once to develop a game like this, but nowadays, not so much apparently.
It does seem like that. I think player demand has changed; I've got the impression people now want "realism" (but not ACTUAL realism; only fake!) and very fast gameplay with a fair bit of hand-holding.
Plus, graphics seem to be nearly considered just as important as gameplay.
Then there are the massive discussions on "realism vs arcade", "realism vs fantasy" and "realism vs history" that massively confuses everyone.
(My answer: just do it all at the same time! We've proved that is mostly possible.
)
And there are substantial nonsense politics in the pirate game communities, along with a new "sell the game before it's finished" approach in general.
The gaming world certainly seems to have changed a lot since 2003 and I myself certainly cannot keep up.
I'm probably a fair bit too old-fashioned...
How much content does PotC actually have in vanilla-state without mods?
Without mods, there was a LOT less content, but it did have:
- The base game mechanics (walking/sailing/boarding)
- One (non-realistic) island per nation; two for England, plus the Khael Roa story island
- Somewhere between 10 and 20 unique (but relatively low-detail and unrealistic) ship models; each with 2 texture variations
- One playable character: Nathaniel Hawk
- One storyline (kept in New Horizons as "Tales of a Sea Hawk")
- Most of the sidequests (strangely, New Horizons adds more FULL STORYLINES than sidequests!
)
- Two repeatable quest types: cargo delivery and merchant escort
This made the game very basic and fairly boring outside the main storyline.
But it also made for a tremendous base for modding, with a lot of unfinished code left in by the developers that we could fix and finish here.
Of course this is a very brief overview, so feel free to ask if you have any more questions on it;
for example if you're curious if specific content in New Horizons was from the original game or if it was mod-added.
Chances are I can tell you straight away.
Is there anybody still around who played PotC unmodded and remembers how much content it had?
Yes, there is; ME!
